Thursday, May 30, 2013

California Supreme Court Considers Insulin-in-Schools Case

See this coverage from the LA Times, which begins:
Several members of the California Supreme Court appeared wary Wednesday of requiring public schools to provide licensed nurses to administer insulin injections and other medications to schoolchildren.

The powerful California Nurses Assn. has argued that state law requires licensed nurses to provide insulin injections and other medicines, and two lower courts have agreed. The American Diabetes Assn. appealed. During a hearing, some justices on the state high court appeared skeptical of the nurses' arguments. 
Justice Ming W. Chin, noting that few schools have full-time nurses, questioned why districts should have to call in a licensed practitioner to administer a shot that a child's parents and physician have agreed could be given by an unlicensed but trained employee.
For full disclosure, I should note that when I was at DOJ I signed a brief in this case arguing that the state Nurse Practices Act, to the extent that it is construed to prevent unlicensed but trained school employees from administering insulin injections to students with diabetes, is preempted by the IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks, Sam. Here's hoping for a good opinion protecting the rights of kids with diabetes who need help with insulin when no nurse is at school that day. Kids in peril need help, not abandonment, when there's no nurse present. There are trained people who help kids every day in this country, when the child needs help with insulin at school.

12:22 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks, Sam. Here's to an opinion that protects kids who need help with insulin when no nurse is around at school. They need help, not abandonment in that situation, and it appears that members of the Court got it.

12:24 PM  

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